Likelihood to Recommend Many of my students reach the 852 score and are eligible to take the Star Reading test in the Spring. This is due to the reports telling me which skills to work on and being able to group students according to skill needs. When I need teacher assistance, online meetings with Renaissance support personnel has been available. Renaissance always welcomes teacher feedback to improve their products. The company has acquired many classroom tools in the last years and connected them fir ease of teacher use, which saves classroom time.
Read full review It's a good platform that has some very good content. We use Canvas as our learning management platform. It is nice to be able to integrate some of the pre-build WileyPLUS course modules into our Canvas course. Other publishers are good too and they sync with Canvas, but I find Wiley's Canvas modules easy to use and customize.
Read full review Pros Renaissance Star Assessments gives me a look at each student as an overall reader. Renaissance Star Assessments shows me the areas of which my students are struggling. Renaissance Star Assessments is linked with Nearpod, so I can assign lessons based on what each student needs. Star CBM helps me see whether my students' fluency is improving or not. Read full review Auto-grading- provides immediate feedback to students. Adaptive assignment- helps the students see their weak areas. Video, videos, and more videos! There are solution walk-through videos, interactive tutorials, and real-world videos. Tech support- I get help when I need it, right away! Read full review Cons The graphs for each subject are not consistently the same. (ie. some graphs are by 5s and some are by 50s.) It's very confusing to read them. The questions are not rigorous enough for state standards. Different reports will show data that does not align. If 'state' is chosen, then all reports should show the same data. The Parent Report will show the child in 'green', but every sub-skill is in 'red'. That is super confusing for parents and teachers. All reports should be based on the same score, but they are not. It is like comparing apples to oranges on the same child. Read full review There are a few errors in the homework answers. Some questions could be worded better to help students better match the formatting expectations when they change throughout the chapter. The offline PDF of the text should always be included in any online package. Read full review Likelihood to Renew I give it this rating because it is an essential program in our school. We set up reading groups throug( the Star assessment. We set goals based on the assessment. Students comfort zones are based on the zpd data in Star. We track students progress through the data found in Star.
Read full review Reliable effective tool.
Read full review Usability I love the idea that it takes only a short period of time for the students to be able to take the quizzes and obtain results. I appreciative how quickly the teacher has plans on implementation in her/his hands as soon as the class has completed the quiz.
Read full review It is so easy to pick up and students have no issues learning to use it.
Read full review Reliability and Availability It’s wonderful
Read full review Performance I absolutely love this program
Read full review Support Rating After using the product for multiple years, I am very pleased with the assessment administration and report options. I use STAR Assessment data regularly and review the different reports to guide instruction. There are many different report options to help meet the needs of the teacher and student. STAR Assessments are a valuable assessment tool for the classroom
Read full review 24-7 support is available by phone, chat, or email. They also hold annual events which I have been blessed to attend twice. The staff is excellent. They are knowledgeable and genuinely care about you and your students. There are online forums for instructors to collaborate, learn, and have fun. Instructors receive gift cards for their participation too!
Read full review Online Training I just feel this way.
Read full review Implementation Rating When presenters show us how to use the program they need to have a full class size of data. During training, there were only 5 or 6 sample students. Classes are more like 25 and that makes the training more realistic to have similar data to what we will use.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Renaissance Star Math Assessment provided a proven data collection tool. This was also being used at the lower grades in our district, so it made sense to continue with its use to provide a more reliable and accurate picture of our students entering the middle school. The continuation of the data trail should continue to help their overall growth.
Read full review WileyPLUS is far better than one competing product I have used and noticeably better than a second competing product I have tested. I prefer not to name the other products. It is much easier to operate from an instructor perspective. Given the low level of questions it generates from students, I am certain it is easy for students to pick up and the level of Wiley support given to me and to students is great.
Jim Martin Henrietta and G.W. Snyder Jr. Professor in Business
Read full review Scalability Great overall program with lots of advice in implementation
Read full review Return on Investment It has positively impacted student time to learn by reducing testing times and allowing more time for instruction The reduced testing time also positively impacted our schools by freeing the computer labs and making the planning and creation of testing schedules easier. This has allowed more computer lab use for education and learning. It has negatively impacted the time and effort required by support staff, administrators, and some teachers by requiring more time spent on looking up results or going to multiple spots and manually combining results because a larger group couldn't easily be made. Another negative impact on our district is that it has also taxed those few educators with more technical ability and data knowledge moreso than other programs. The need to create/summarize/write programs to deal with full, raw data export files since the smaller, more specific reports and summaries are not downloadable into a format that can be manipulated easily (pdf only, not csv exports), and to constantly back up data exports and to have to search through them when the State wants results on past students etc. Read full review Decreased, significantly, my grading time. No more manual grading of work. It is more of a review that allows me to target specific areas and specific students. Students now have resources to help them learn the content when they are away from class. Students get immediate feedback (depending on instructor settings) on problem areas and the ability to learn from their mistakes without having to wait for the instructor. Read full review ScreenShots